jmt

The house is owned by me (Jason Taylor) and AJ Morton. We are continuing to made improvements inside and outside the property. We just planted the century plants up front by the brick wall and will finish off the project this weekend taking the grass out. We will eventually put in some nice gravel rocks there along with the century plants to make it look better and almost the same as the orginal drawings "The Texan Americana." We will also eventually have carport put in and modern design fence or basket weave fence like it was originally put in when the house was first built. The house next door me, the neighbor has moved and will come back I think this weekend and get the rest of the stuff and she said she is planning to fix it up a little and sell it. If she isn't able to sell within her time frame then she'll rent it out. That's the update.

Any updates on this? The Texan Americana is at the end (or beginning) of the 1956 Parade of Homes series I'll be uploading soon and I'm wondering if it's going to be finished out or not...

The house still has ways to go on the outside for landscaping and some cosmetic upgrades. Inside is about finished for the most part. This house came a long ways since '56 and today is 2010 (Happy New Year) and we are finishing up the final on the electricity and kitchen wall. We will continue to do upgrades in througout the house and outside in the yard as time progresses. There are lots of updates and the photos are on flickr. http://flickr.com/jmtworld and start browsing through there and you'll see what's been happening. I haven't updated any photos since last fall. I will continue to upload them on another flickr account since I have maxed out the free space on the current account. I think I'll use google. I'll come back on HAIF more often to letcha know the updates.

The Cayton house is under going 2 bid estimates and we will get started the remodel project sometime the 1st or 2nd week of June. Some of you guys will be in awe or some of you guys may not be so impressed. We love the originality of our house. There will be some good old charm left once we have it all finished. However, due to the costs and value in the area and all the other factors, we are limited on what we can do on renovations.

We will have the entire inside have new insulation and we did a lot of tear down and a lot of the ceiling and wall insulation is so gross and I am glad that we're taking the entire sheetrock in the entire house down. First of all the sheetrock is half century old, has old paint which probably has lead in it and also not to forget folks, this house had extensive termite damages and it ate through wood, paint, sheetrock, inside frame of the house etc. So it's good to tear down and we can see teh actual health of the wood frame. The masterbath is gone and will be repiped. The only thing that will have the actual original is the pink bathroom. We will keep it. Oh not to forget, the floors will stay and will be redone.

The kitchen however is a huge mess. The subfloor is damaged from previous water leaks and it will be easier to rip out the old kitchen and again, due to the cost of customizing everything and bring it back to orginal will be costly. SO we're going to "modern" it up and have a new face lift in the kitchen.

Oh speaking about the cork floor, love the idea but decided to extend the wood floor from the living room and will intall new wood planks just like the one in the living room and it will be all the way to the end where the multi-purpose room begins.

The master bathroom door from the kitchen to the master bedroom will be sealed off. I don't understand why it was designed that way but we're in the modern world here and some of this have to be redesigned and make it look real good and it should increase value after all this is done.

After this whole thing is done, we'll do the outside such as fence. We would like to put up a basket weave fence just like when it was first built in 1954.

And another thing is rewire the whole house with new wires up to CODE by the city and state. Also new insulation which this house needs bad. Also we should have the roof checked.

I will try to film it and take lots of photos when the house is under going mulitple projects at once.

Oh and the carport is so old and will be costly if we try to have it repaired piece by piece. So we're going to have it torn down and build a new wood carport and similar to the one we have now but more stronger and of course newer. Also we plan to put in a glass garage door and make it look "modern" on the outside. Spice up the look and also we will have more lighting on the outside and it's good to have a "show and tell" and not only that but for security reasons. Keep the area secured and lit up and hopefully Glenbrook will come up with the "yard of the month" by the council and should start doing that or "house" of the month. Come up with ideas to motivate these glenbrook valley folks.

I think this is all for now. Folks, go on over there and peak through the windows and see if you see anything different. We will have guys coming over doing some estimates this week and next. Then we'll pick our bidder and get started. Then we'll probably be over there quite often to make sure everything is good and all.

Well Folks, its been a long while since I been on this forum. We did start the demo on June 2, 2009. Today is August 9, 2009 (close enough) and the house is almost finished bu a lot of detailing and little things that takes up a lot of time. There are photos you can see on flickr and the link is http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmtworld and you can start with Week One or go to teh bottom and start from there.

Holy crap. Good point. Wonder what odor they're masking...

Anyone want to check to see if someone died here?

Well, from what I learned from neighbors is that Mrs. Bunch the previous owner and the only owner until we bought it and started the project. She had lots and lots of cats living inside the house and I bet that's the reason of those air frenshers.

The Cayton house is under going 2 bid estimates and we will get started the remodel project sometime the 1st or 2nd week of June. Some of you guys will be in awe or some of you guys may not be so impressed. We love the originality of our house. There will be some good old charm left once we have it all finished. However, due to the costs and value in the area and all the other factors, we are limited on what we can do on renovations.

We will have the entire inside have new insulation and we did a lot of tear down and a lot of the ceiling and wall insulation is so gross and I am glad that we're taking the entire sheetrock in the entire house down. First of all the sheetrock is half century old, has old paint which probably has lead in it and also not to forget folks, this house had extensive termite damages and it ate through wood, paint, sheetrock, inside frame of the house etc. So it's good to tear down and we can see teh actual health of the wood frame. The masterbath is gone and will be repiped. The only thing that will have the actual original is the pink bathroom. We will keep it. Oh not to forget, the floors will stay and will be redone.

The kitchen however is a huge mess. The subfloor is damaged from previous water leaks and it will be easier to rip out the old kitchen and again, due to the cost of customizing everything and bring it back to orginal will be costly. SO we're going to "modern" it up and have a new face lift in the kitchen.

Oh speaking about the cork floor, love the idea but decided to extend the wood floor from the living room and will intall new wood planks just like the one in the living room and it will be all the way to the end where the multi-purpose room begins.

The master bathroom door from the kitchen to the master bedroom will be sealed off. I don't understand why it was designed that way but we're in the modern world here and some of this have to be redesigned and make it look real good and it should increase value after all this is done.

After this whole thing is done, we'll do the outside such as fence. We would like to put up a basket weave fence just like when it was first built in 1954.

And another thing is rewire the whole house with new wires up to CODE by the city and state. Also new insulation which this house needs bad. Also we should have the roof checked.

I will try to film it and take lots of photos when the house is under going mulitple projects at once.

Oh and the carport is so old and will be costly if we try to have it repaired piece by piece. So we're going to have it torn down and build a new wood carport and similar to the one we have now but more stronger and of course newer. Also we plan to put in a glass garage door and make it look "modern" on the outside. Spice up the look and also we will have more lighting on the outside and it's good to have a "show and tell" and not only that but for security reasons. Keep the area secured and lit up and hopefully Glenbrook will come up with the "yard of the month" by the council and should start doing that or "house" of the month. Come up with ideas to motivate these glenbrook valley folks.

I think this is all for now. Folks, go on over there and peak through the windows and see if you see anything different. We will have guys coming over doing some estimates this week and next. Then we'll pick our bidder and get started. Then we'll probably be over there quite often to make sure everything is good and all.

Aww thanks. Right now we're taking it slowly and things we need to do. Guess the word is "budget and planning" at the moment. We've done some stuff there but not much else we can do until we discuss it with the General Contractor. That's all we're doing. Nothing much left at the moment for us to do. And yes there are plenty of little things to do in the house but limited with sun light and all.

Hello jmt, Happy New Year.

How is your project house doing?

This is a great thread because of your photos, thank you for sharing.

Hope Atomic Ranch magazine comes calling once it's complete.

You are some very strong brave people, Im very impressed.

Cheers! -Rock.

Hello there again =)

Happy Holidays!

Where can you get a repilca "talk a radio" the photo you took from the wall. I tried typing every word to come up with "talk a radio" or "wall mount radio" or anything like that but doesn't come up.

Can you give a hint or help out?

Merry Christmas =)

Jason T.

I was allowed to go by and look over this jewel yesterday afternoon. The guys were great and seem to be off on an interesting adventure to make this their home. This is an absolutely amazing time capsule. It appears that an original owner lived her entire adult life here as a single mom raising a troubled child. The interior elements are all still in place right down to the Talk-A-Radio intercom/house radio system, electric stove top, and accordion doors. The entry is terrazzo tile. Great design and a serious human interest back story - what else could one want!

These guys do have a pretty steep hill to climb getting it back in shape, but they seem to be embracing this challenge. I know from long experience that heavy restoration and remodeling efforts are fraught with many things that jump up and surprise everyone. These surprises make budgeting and schedule practically impossible to maintain as tight a control on as all expect. These efforts also put severe strain on the best relationships and friendships along the way. I've even had clients divorce and several seperate, and almost all quarrel during these projects! It's like the old story of remembering it's hard to drain the swamp when you're up to your wallet in alligators.

In talking with the guys, they seem to value planning and have a pretty good one going. With almost 25 years of project management experience, I know how to appreciate a good plan. When one first looks at a project like this it's very easy to be overwhelmed. Where to start?, What to do? The pressure of needing to "do" something right away is a very real one. They seemed to take a step back and start seeing what they had and prioritizing - a very good thing. And effectively drawing upon the collective experiences of groups like this are a tremendous help.

I'm kinda excited to see how this one progresses.

We want to give lots of thanks for the guys (Mike, Don, Chris, Jamie) volunteered to our yard. It was amazing how much they did to make the yard look better. We still have a long ways to go but it looks better every time. I haven't met Chris Kimble. For those who know him, inform him that I will be there this weekend. I don't know the time yet but for those who are involved in the MOD world, come on over. Take a look around. Feel free to do that. I'll be more than happy to meet and greet. =)

I am sure everyone of you enjoyed the snow yesterday. Now its back to warm weather over the weekend. *sigh*

We will do something, just waiting for a few things to come into place. Such as contractors, financing and it it all together and get it done quickly.

Do something!

We're cleaning up the livving room and moving the stuff to the master bedroom as storage for now. We're going to do the kitchen first and needed to clean it up so we have a better picture in our heads and better planning.

This is what it looks like in the living room. Bare wall and just see the frame. We'll have those main posts replaced real soon. We're waiting on a few things before we can do major construction work in and out of the house.

These photos were taken last Saturday and cleaning up the outside. Finally it is looking a lot better but I need some folks to volunteer to do the yard at least once for the backyard and we don't have lawn equipment to do it and I am sure our dear friends would love to do it for at least once and we'll have a outing soon in helping us do the yard.

The yard needs to be mowed, weed eat, edged, and it will help keep mice and bugs away from the house because the grass will be shorter and nicer. Then we can do more things to it.

Please anyone? I know some of our new friends do have lawn equipment and the backyard is something i am worried about. Because grass is so tall and not sure if any lawn mower will just cut it. Will probably need a commercial lawn mower. Anyone have it? or just try and see if a regular mower will work.

Here are two photos of our living room wall. The posts that are there are eaten by previous termites. There were roaches hiding and I sprayed them down with roach spray and they are dying off and also we sprayed in parts of the house and usually roaches are up at night but not during day light. But they were not functioning properly. We wanted to finish the project and get all of it out of the house but the air got really thick and fiberglass insulation is dangerous to be in. We had professional masks on but just too much. The only thing I regret is we didn't finish picking up all the torn down walls/insulation off the floor and put them in the trash pile and now roaches are probably hiding in the debris and probably half of them are dead.

Anyway, what we are thinking about doing is not doing anything this weekend but again I sense that we just need to take down that wall and really finish it up. Probably take an hour to do and sweep the floor again. Then just "bomb" the house with roach spray and leave it there for the week and we'll come back the following weekend. But then again it's like we want to continue working with out any roach spray.

Good Morning,

Where can I find the actual blue print of the house?

We just took down the wall in the living room. I'll send a photo.

jt

I was allowed to go by and look over this jewel yesterday afternoon. The guys were great and seem to be off on an interesting adventure to make this their home. This is an absolutely amazing time capsule. It appears that an original owner lived her entire adult life here as a single mom raising a troubled child. The interior elements are all still in place right down to the Talk-A-Radio intercom/house radio system, electric stove top, and accordion doors. The entry is terrazzo tile. Great design and a serious human interest back story - what else could one want!

These guys do have a pretty steep hill to climb getting it back in shape, but they seem to be embracing this challenge. I know from long experience that heavy restoration and remodeling efforts are fraught with many things that jump up and surprise everyone. These surprises make budgeting and schedule practically impossible to maintain as tight a control on as all expect. These efforts also put severe strain on the best relationships and friendships along the way. I've even had clients divorce and several seperate, and almost all quarrel during these projects! It's like the old story of remembering it's hard to drain the swamp when you're up to your wallet in alligators.

In talking with the guys, they seem to value planning and have a pretty good one going. With almost 25 years of project management experience, I know how to appreciate a good plan. When one first looks at a project like this it's very easy to be overwhelmed. Where to start?, What to do? The pressure of needing to "do" something right away is a very real one. They seemed to take a step back and start seeing what they had and prioritizing - a very good thing. And effectively drawing upon the collective experiences of groups like this are a tremendous help.

I'm kinda excited to see how this one progresses.

Here is another photo of the wall.

hello Folks. I did a quick 6 minute video of the Cayton Tour as of today November 2nd 2008. You'll see what we did today and check the photos on flickr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlS_DCJqYrg

Hello Folks! What I did today was clean the masterbath and master bedroom. Swept and mopped the floors. Also the living room carpet is gone. Lookin'

good and these photos are from my blackberry. I should bring my digital camera so you guys can enjoy the photos a little more. I also have flickr and

please go there for the photos and after as of today.

Link

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmtworld/

Hi all, I am new to the neighborhood! I know some of you and gonna be around